NORTH AMERICAn INDUSTRY SURVEY ON NATURAL REFRIGERANTS To quantify the market for the natural refrigerants ammonia (NH 3 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), hydrocarbons (HCs), water (H 2 O), and air, an online survey was sent to more than 7,000 HVAC&R professionals and relevant industry associations world-wide. The survey ran from March 6 to November 6 2012. In total, 559 responses were included in the analysis. Specific objectives of the survey were to identify expectations and priorities for the heating, refrigeration, and air-conditioning industry in North America, familiarity levels with natural refrigerants (NR), availability of NR solutions and future plans, and the potential of North America to become a world leader in natural refrigerant solutions. Moreover the survey asked about the general HVAC&R market conditions for NRs, the impact of policy on market development, key purchasing criteria for commercial end-users, and the strengths and weaknesses of NRs compared to traditional solutions. METHODOLOGY Although a global industry survey had been conducted in 2011, this new survey was the first to specifically receive only input from industry stakeholders active in Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. The survey consisted of a mixture of up to 28 structured (closed-ended) and unstructured (open-ended) questions, depending on the question logic selected. Responses were received mainly from a list of 7,000 HVAC&R industry experts from around the world, and various industry associations and voluntary initiatives, such as the GreenChill Program in the US, provided help in disseminating the survey. As the survey naturally attracted respondents who were familiar with and/or interested in natural refrigerant (NR) technology solutions, there was a clear overrepresentation of the “pro-NR” industry (actors who already offer or use NR systems). To avoid this bias as much as possible, wherever marked differences in response patterns from the total data set could be identified, both sub-sets of “pro-NR” and “non-NR” were explicitly stated and contrasted. MOST INTEREST FROM USA As previously stated the large majority of the 556 respondents were located in the United States of America (80%), followed by Canada (15%) and Mexico (5%). Most organizations represented belonged to either a small organization with less than 100 staff members (40%) or a large organization with more than 500 employees (40%). Medium-sized organizations were represented to a minor extent (20%). While the US represented between 84% and 89% of medium to large size companies, relatively more responses were received from smaller organizations in Canada (22%), where the USA only had a share of 70%. ENGINEERING & CONTRACTING SECTOR DOMINANT Respondents were first asked to indicate which types of activities their organization is active in; multiple choices were possible. More than one third of participants represented the engineering & contracting sector (35%), followed by a quarter from the system manufacturing business (26%), and component supplying sector (25%). Associations and marketing consultancies were significantly less represented, with values of 3% and 10% respectively. End-users made up close to one fifth of respondents (18%), whereas training & research activities were carried out by 13% of respondents. A crosstab analysis with the organization size indicated that associations, training & research, as well as consultancy & marketing were evenly distributed, accounting for the whole range of small to large organizations. On the other hand, end-users were mainly found in the “large” category, and both system manufacturers and component suppliers tended to be in the medium to large category. Only Engineering & Contracting – the strongest response group overall – was mainly represented by small companies (50% of which were in this category). COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATION LARGEST RESPONSE GROUP The largest share of respondents (61%) was "currently active" – either on the supply or demand side - in the commercial refrigeration sector. More than half of all respondents were (sometimes also) active in the industrial & commercial air-conditioning business (54%) and in industrial refrigeration (53%). This high response rate from the commercial and industrial refrigeration business was to be expected, given the extended use of ammonia in industrial plants and the renewed interest in natural working fluids in supermarket applications. Slightly less pronounced were activities in the lightcommercial refrigeration sector. Mobile air conditioning (20%) and transport refrigeration (19%) attracted the lowest response rate. This was not surprising, given that these industry sectors have adopted natural refrigerants only to a minor extent. The industrial, commercial, and residential heating sectors, as well as the domestic refrigeration and residential air-conditioning sectors, ranged from a 23% to 38% response rate. Again, respondents could select multiple options. 88
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